News
75th Anniversary of Karol Szymanowski's Death
2012-03-29
Today, 29 March 2012, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Karol Szymanowski’s death – one of the most accomplished Polish composers of European and worldwide significance and a representative of the Young Poland movement in music. His invaluable contribution to musical culture includes symphonic works, vocal-instrumental, solo and chamber works. Karol Szymanowski was born on 3 October 1882 in Tymoszówka, Ukraine, and died on 29 March 1937 in Lausanne. He began his musical education under his father, and then continued in Elizawetgrad with G. Neuhaus. In 1901 he moved to Warsaw, where in 1904 M. Zawirski gave him private lessons in harmony and Z. Noskowski taught him counterpoint and composition. In Berlin in 1905 he founded the "Printing Cooperative of Young Polish Composers". Its purpose was to promote new Polish music through publication and performance. The first composers’ concerts of its members were held in the years 1906-1908 in Warsaw and Berlin. In 1912 Szymanowski signed a contract with Universal Edition in Vienna, where he visited several times. He undertook a number of trips to Italy and Sicily, visited Arab North Africa. The ancient and Eastern cultural monuments made a deep impression on the composer, and influenced the development of his artistic individuality.During World War I, Szymanowski was in his home village Tymoszówka and in
1919 he came to independent Poland. At the turn of the year 1920/21 he made his first trip to America with Paweł Kochański and Artur Rubinstein. As a composer he achieved considerable success in the U.S., and his music became known in the country.
The years 1922 to 1926 brought many international performances of Szymanowski’s works: in Paris, London, Vienna, Trieste, Venice, Salzburg, Prague, Berlin, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago. In 1927-29 Szymanowski was director of the Warsaw Conservatory, and later rector of the Warsaw Music Academy. Later, having no regular income, he performed as a pianist in concerts throughout Europe with his Fourth Symphony. The composer's other prominent works include the Symphony III Song of the Night, the opera Hagith, the ballet Harnasie and many others.
We are pleased to announce that this year Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne will reprint an edition of Karol Szymanowski’s Symphony II, and will prepare new versions of the performance materials for the Symphonies I and II.
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The esteemed American-Canadian jazz musician Michael Bates, his Acrobat Ensemble and the Lutosławski Quartet will perform three concerts in Poland in November. The repertoire will include material recorded by the musicians on the album METAMORPHOSES: VARIATIONS ON LUTOSŁAWSKI, released by ANAKLASIS in the REVISIONS series.
The artists have already successfully presented it at Lincoln Center and Barbès Jazz Club in New York. In autumn 2024 we will have the opportunity to hear them live for the first time in Poland: 14.11 - Krakow, 15.11 - Lublin, 17.11 - Wroclaw.
The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw invites to the inaugural session of the biennial International Digital Musicology Conference, which will be held 23–25 October 2024, at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland. The conference focuses on the integration of digital technologies into musicological research, with a special emphasis on introducing digital tools and methods to the Polish academic community, where digital musicology has not yet been widely adopted.
It’ s like a game. The memory game, thanks to which you can look at a very ordinary family from an extraordinary perspective. ALBUM RODZINNY [Family album] – an opera by Jerzy Kornowicz with a libretto by Michał Rusinek – is another premiere of the ANAKLASIS label this year. This time, the record brand is expanding its audience to include the youngest listeners. The album will be released on 21st June.
Time passes constantly, changing the world and its soundscape around us. The title IL TEMPO PASSA may be both a reflection on the impermanence of life, world and things and a piece of advice to enjoy the moment. The latest album by ANAKLASIS presents Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa’s cameral and symphonic works from recent years. Premiere on 28 May 2024, on the composer’s 75th birthday.
It is a musical-literary tale about a quest for identity, truth, and for what makes us human. The new stage work by Aleksander Nowak – which is, at the same time, Radek Rak’s operatic debut – explores the sources of good and evil, fusing reality with mythology and steering towards ‘the left-hand side of the world’. The authors spin a tale about the dual human nature. THE TALE OF THE HEART. FAVOLA IN MUSICA – the album that presents their joint project – will go on sale on 6th October.
Spectacularly successful as Ludomir Różycki’s music was in his lifetime, it is seldom programmed nowadays. All the same, such remarkable art could hardly fall into utter oblivion. It has attracted and fascinated excellent jazz pianist Kuba Stankiewicz, who has translated it into the language of jazz. The effects have been recorded and released on ANAKLASIS label’s most recent album, INSPIRED BY LUDOMIR RÓŻYCKI, which goes on sale as of 28th August.
PWM Edition is entering the execution phase of the revitalisation of its Warsaw department. With the commencement of the renovation and the implementation of the assumptions of the architectural design, the Hire Department and the editorial office of “Ruch Muzyczny” are moving to a temporary headquarters at 19 Wiejska Street, Warsaw.
This is by no means a piece about the centuries-long Polish-German conflict. It is, instead, a tale of impossible love, of tragic conflict between personal happiness and the common good.
PWM Edition resumes cooperation with the Italian publishing house Ricordi, as well as with its international partners forming Universal Music Publishing Classics & Screen. This means that rentals of orchestral materials from the catalogues of all publishing houses belonging to Classics & Screen is carried out in Poland by Dział Zbiorów Nutowych (Sheet Music Department) of PWM.
